According to the New York Post on the 17th, preliminary data released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday showed that the number of drug overdose deaths in the United States has surged by nearly 30% compared with last year.
During the 12-month period ending April this year, an estimated 100306 people died of drug overdose across the United States, an increase of 28.5% compared with 78056 in the same period last year. Only four states – New Jersey, Delaware, New Hampshire and South Dakota – have seen a decline in drug overdose cases, while Vermont has increased by nearly 70%, followed by West Virginia and Kentucky, up 62% and 54.5%, respectively, and New York State has increased by 20.4%.
U.S. President Biden said in a statement, “Today, new data show that our country has reached a tragic milestone: from April last year to April this year, more than 10 thousand people died of drug overdose. Although we are continuing to make progress in the fight against the coronavirus epidemic, we cannot ignore this deadly epidemic that has affected families and communities across the country. He pointed out that the U.S. federal government has allocated nearly $40 billion to strengthen and expand services to deal with drug abuse and ensure mental health across the United States, while efforts are also being made to cut off the supply of drugs to communities.
Data released on Wednesday showed that over a year, the number of deaths due to opioid intake, including strong fentanyl, accounted for more than 75% of the total deaths. The U.S. CDC previously reported that about 9.3 million people died of drug overdose in 2020, the highest number ever recorded.
Robert Anderson, head of mortality statistics at the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), said the increase was “shocking”. He said, “Obviously, if we don’t control it, the death toll will increase, and we will not only reach the terrible milestone of 100 thousand people. Except for the increase in numbers from five to six digits, nothing else is special, which means that many people will die. It is hoped that these statistics can stimulate public health projects and preventive action.
According to CDC data in the United States, the number of drug overdose deaths across the United States increased by 137 percent between 2000 and 2014, with a 200% increase in deaths involving opioids and heroin. According to the Associated Press, the number of deaths caused by overdose in the United States has now exceeded car accidents, guns, flu and pneumonia, second only to diabetes, the seventh largest cause of death in the United States.
According to U.S. media, the number of drug overdose deaths decreased slightly from 2017 to 2018, but began to increase the next year. Experts believe that the coronavirus epidemic has obviously played a role in this disturbing milestone, but it is unclear how much it will play. Andrew Kolodny, an opioid policy expert in the United States, said, “Oioid addiction is a chronic recurrent disease. Factors such as stress or social isolation may lead to the recurrence of opioid addiction patients. But in the past few years, the number of opioid deaths in the United States has soared, we are in a serious crisis, and the crisis is rapidly worsening.
